EFSA Wants In-House Expertise on Cultivated Meat and Precision Fermentation Before Applications Arrive

The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) is seeking to develop in-house expertise in cultivated meat and precision fermentation to assess novel food applications more quickly and effectively. A paper published by the agency identifies these technologies as priority areas for sustainable food innovation and highlights the need for risk assessments to be faster and fit-for-purpose. EFSA aims to build specialist knowledge internally due to a lack of accessible information on rapidly developing technologies.

Nonprofit think tank GFI Europe has welcomed EFSA's initiative, noting that the agency's food safety assessment processes are robust and proactive. GFI Europe argues for the inclusion of novel foods in regulatory sandboxes to facilitate the study of new production processes and boost regulatory preparedness. The European Commission excluded novel foods from this scheme, a decision that is currently under negotiation by the European Parliament and the Council of the EU.